Come fall the longleaf shed their needles and half of south Georgia turns the color of rust. Delgado and Sons Pinestraw works that harvest into beds — straw laid deep and even around foundations, mailboxes and tree rings, tucked to a clean line where it meets the grass. Mowing, trimming and cleanup fill the rest of the calendar in eastern Echols County, from the sand roads outside Statenville to the yards sitting close to the highway. A fresh bed of straw does what it has always done: holds the ground, keeps the weeds down, makes a plain yard look finished. The satisfaction is in the edge of it, dark and straight, the morning after.